1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to online identity verification systems and methods, particularly those associated with online study courses.
2. Description of the Related Art
With the proliferation of online commerce and education, the need for improved ways of administering online study courses and examinations has increased. Ensuring the integrity of an examination or the study of a course online is difficult, because the user is at a remote location, such as at home, a library, or an office, where he or she cannot be monitored by an exam or course administrator or a proctor.
Presently, online education providers such as online traffic schools who provide driver education courses have limited ways of verifying the identity of the individuals who access their courses online. For example, most online traffic schools request identifying information such as birthdays, drivers license numbers, social security numbers, passwords, addresses, and the like, most of which can easily be obtained by imposters. Others require that such information be provided periodically during the course of an examination. None of these methods, however, provide sufficient assurances that the person accessing the course or taking the examination is the actual person who is required to take the course or the examination.
In addition, present systems for identity verification cannot be deployed in an efficient, practical and inexpensive manner that makes them feasible for use by a significant segment of online education resource providers. Thus, there is a need for improved online identity verification systems that can be used by online education providers. The present invention solves these and other problems associated with the state of the art.